


Mourning Light

by SoftButchCassidy



Series: Aurora and Mikris (and friends!) [15]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Backstory, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, happy ending tho!!, implied suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:22:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24498631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoftButchCassidy/pseuds/SoftButchCassidy
Summary: Not every Guardian learns of their past. Some aren't so lucky.How do you cope with learning you were once a killer? A monster? How do you cope with people treating you as a hero for killing gods when none of them know what you did before your death?
Relationships: Female Guardian/Original Fallen | Eliksni Character(s)
Series: Aurora and Mikris (and friends!) [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1496270
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	Mourning Light

**Author's Note:**

> AURORA BACKSTORY BABEY

She sat far too casually for a woman who knew she had days to live.

She stared evenly at him, her rich brown eyes unsettlingly empty. Her mouth was quirked in a smirk, or a sneer, just barely. The only sound was the slow ticking of the clock on the wall.

He looked past her finally to the mirror behind her. 

There was a click, and a voice through the speakers. “Ms. Tan. You do still have the right to an attorney. This is pointless. Without one, there’s no way you can--”

“I know,” the woman said. Her voice was light and deep. She kept her eyes on him. “I know what’s gonna happen.”

He sighed and spoke before the other officer outside could. “Then why not cooperate?” he asked.

Giovanna Tan’s grin widened. “Why not, indeed?”

He gritted his teeth. 

There was a sound outside. He frowned. 

After a few moments, the speakers went on again. “Agent Carter, requesting your presence.”

Carter knit his brow and made for the door. He paused and glared at Giovanna. “Don’t move.”

She tugged at the heavy cuffs pinning her hands to the table. Her ankles were similarly bound. “Don’t worry, Agent, I got nowhere to go.”

He left her alone and seethed as he met his team in the viewing room. 

Carter stopped in the doorway. He didn’t recognize the person waiting with his team.

They smiled. “Agent Carter,” they greeted. “I am Dr. Tian Chen.”

Carter nodded and offered his hand. They had a surprisingly firm, professional handshake. “How can I help you, Dr. Chen?”

“My employer has been notified that you have apprehended a… particularly intriguing individual. He has a proposition for her… and for you.”

Carter narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean?”

Dr. Chen’s smile didn’t ebb. “Giovanna Tan. Wanted by nearly every governing body throughout the solar system. She has a bounty of millions of credits on her head and the blood of dozens on her hands. There is no possible chance that she will be released by any court.”

“She’s dangerous,” Carter said. “Very, very dangerous. That woman cannot leave this facility.”

Dr. Chen folded their hands neatly in front of them. “In the last one hundred years, only seven people have been sentenced to death and executed. John Kyut, Borris Telgrad, Igren McFill--”

“Yes, I know,” Carter interrupted impatiently. “Giovanna is going to be the eighth. There’s no way around it. We’re trying to get her to cooperate so that we can ensure that at the very least, we can get in touch with the victims’ families--”

“I understand, Agent Carter. However, my employer is interested in taking over this case.”

He blinked. Then again. “What?”

“You are in charge of this case, yes?” Dr. Chen angled their head. “My employer has asked me to request that you sign over the case, and Giovanna’s sentencing, to him.”

Carter shook his head, bewildered. “What the hell are you talking about? This is a legal case, you understand, not some business thing--”

Dr. Chen held up their hand, palm-up, and he noticed that their arm was mechanical. 

A hologram burst out from their palm. The symbol that shimmered above their hand made Carter go cold.

He took a deep breath.

Dr. Chen closed their fingers, cutting off the hologram. “As I said. Giovanna will be the eighth person sentenced to death this century. My employer would like to make use of it. Of her.”

Carter ran his hand through his hair. “I can’t say no, can I?”

“You can,” Dr. Chen said. 

Could he?

***

Giovanna looked up as the door opened again. She frowned at the stranger who came in with Carter.

“Ms. Tan,” Carter said. “This is Dr. Tian Chen.”

Giovanna eyed them. “Okay.”

Dr. Chen bowed shallowly. “I have come to give you a proposition.”

Giovanna raised an eyebrow. “Yeah? What kind?”

“You have no chance of survival.”

“Yep.”

“I am a representative of someone who would be willing to make your sentencing meaningful. A unique opportunity for someone like you.”

Giovanna leaned forward. “Spit it out, Doctor. I’m a dying woman, after all, I ain’t got all day to hear you beat around the bush.”

Dr. Chen nodded and held out their hand.

Giovanna leaned back at the sight of the hologram. “Oh.”

Carter spoke up. He sounded resigned. “As I’m in charge of your case, I’m going to give you the choice. You can stay here, under my jurisdiction. Or…”

“Or… let them do…”

Carter shrugged.

Giovanna took a breath and shook her head. “Well. What the hell. Gonna die anyway.”

***

Exos were almost commonplace now. 

Still, eyes were drawn to the one standing hunched against the wall. Her hood was drawn, shadowing her face, with only the vivid teal glow of her optics visible. She flipped a coin in one hand.

The exo caught her coin and jammed her hand into her pocket. She shrugged off the wall and melted into the crowd. 

The rain started to fall.

Gazes slid past her as people pulled up their hoods, popped open umbrellas, rushed for shelter. Her boots splashed softly in puddles. 

She twisted her hands in the pocket of her sweatshirt, a movement so subtle no one would notice. It wasn’t active camouflage, that was too obvious. The very slight hologram projected onto her face changed the shape of her metal plating, the colors of her body. 

Minutes went by. 

Her optics flickered. The display appeared in her visual processor. 

Target sighted.

She didn’t react.

She kept walking--

“Ah, ow, shit!”

She stumbled and hissed.

“Watch where you’re going!” the man snapped.

She scowled at him.

He sneered. “Oh, I see, okay. Too important to pay attention to normal people.”

“Fuck off,” she said.

He brushed off his shoulder where he had crashed into her. “Fuckin’ robots,” he grumbled.

She turned and stormed away.

A block down the street, she leaned against the wall again, jaw tense. 

She glanced at her display for the time.

Three.

Two.

One.

Target neutralized. 

A scream rang out down the street.

She looked up to see people running in all directions. She straightened and followed the ones running back the way she had come. Her hologram flickered.

The man lay dead on the pavement. Sirens wailed, coming closer.

She showed no emotion looking at his corpse. 

This was easier than ever.

“Good work, Giovanna,” a voice said in her comm. “When you’re clear, head for the rendezvous, and we’ll get you back for the report.”

She didn’t react to the voice. Giovanna-2 slipped back into the crowd and wove through the streets. 

The car waiting for her was inconspicuous from the outside, hiding a luxurious interior. She slid inside without a hesitation and tugged down her hood when the driver pulled away from the curb.

The other man in the car smiled wryly at her and offered her a champagne flute. “Another success,” he said.

Giovanna snorted and took the glass. She leaned back lazily, knees splayed, and brought the flute to her mouth. Drinking was weird, but doable. “I would’ve killed the bastard anyway,” she scoffed. 

“I heard what he said,” the man said sympathetically. “Don’t take it personal. Not everyone understands what Bray has done.”

“I know,” she said. “I just like killing racist people. Even if ‘robot’ isn’t really a race in the same way, buuuuut I digress.”

He shook his head. “How many has that been this week, Gi?”

“Seven targets eliminated, all without a single suspicion,” she answered immediately.

“Seven. Damn. You are somethin’ else, you know that? Dr. Bray has a good eye for talent, my friend.”

“Thanks.” 

He eyed her. “Are you okay?”

She frowned at him. “Yeah. why do you ask?”

“Hm. I don’t know, you seem… off.”

She shrugged. “I’ve killed seven people in the last four days across the entire city. I haven’t slept in a week. I’m just tired. I’ll be fine once I get a couple hours to shut down.”

He nodded. 

She sat up. “What is it?”

“What is what?”

Giovanna glared at him. “You’re hiding something, McLee.”

“No, no--”

She stared without moving. “You know what happens,” she whispered, “when I find out that people are keeping secrets from me.”

A spark of fear lit in his eyes.

“What’s the matter… friend?” 

He swallowed. “You’re being reassigned,” he blurted.

Giovanna narrowed her optics.

He rushed on. “Bray contacted me, personally. He’s impressed with your work here. You’ve done the entire company a huge service and none of them will even know. But he needs you to go to Earth.”

“Earth? Why?”

“A new target. This is… special. It’s not going to be easy. You’ve… heard of the Cosmodrome?”

“Yes. In Russia?”

He nodded. He slowly procured a small data chip and held it out. “Here. The deployment for Earth isn’t for another two days. He… wanted to keep it quiet until right before you left. If the wrong people find out…”

Giovanna took the chip. She reached up and snapped the information module out of her neuroport. The chip slid in easily.

The moment she reconnected it and let the intel flood her mind, she gasped sharp.

He winced.

“Her?” Giovanna hissed. “He wants me to kill  _ her?  _ Is Bray fucking insane?”

“Giovanna,” McLee protested. 

“There’s no way I can do that and make it look like an accident. Not her. Not with what’s going on there. There’s no way Rasputin won’t notice--”

“It won’t--”

“How do you know?”

“Check.”

Giovanna took a breath as she let the rest of the intel download. “Shit. He is insane.”

***

“Yes, Dr. Bray, it’s going smoothly.”

Dr. Carissa Hadford was a lovely woman, with a neat bob cut. The soft, bright pink she preferred to wear stood stark against her dark skin, little of which was often visible, bundled in warm clothes as she was. Everyone was here. Russia was freezing.

Everyone but the exos, anyway.

Exos hired for security were common. They didn’t need the same thick heavy clothes that flesh-and-blood people needed. They did fine with a standard uniform. 

“Yes, we’re working on reconnecting the localized network to his communal neural network after installing the chamber in Site 6,” Dr. Hadford went on. “And Dr. Willa is overseeing the final implementation of… yes, and it’s going well.”

There were three exos standing security within Dr. Hadford’s office. 

Dr. Hadford glanced over her datapad. “Mhm, yes. Okay. I’ll check it. Of course. It shouldn’t take long, maybe an hour or so. I’ll let you know.”

With that, the programmer closed the connection and straightened. “Gin, Ramhe,” she said. Two of her guards stood at alert, and then followed her from the room.

They made their way through the building, and then outside. The entire region was bustling with activity and sound: colony ships being loaded for takeoff, engines being tested, planes soaring overhead. The road was packed.

Something seemed… off. 

Dr. Hadford didn’t notice, or didn’t mention it.

It was a short drive and walk to get to the Warmind. It had far too many names to track: the Bunker, the Vault, the Complex. The official names were struck from formal record. Whatever it was called that day, it was where Dr. Hadford was going. 

The bunker wasn’t any warmer than the surface. 

They passed several other scientists, engineers, and programmers. The doors hissed and slid open for them as they made their way to the neural network.

Dr. Hadford swiped her ID and hummed as she strode forward for one of the consoles. Her guards stood behind her.

“What?” Dr. Hadford muttered after a few moments. “That’s not right.”

“What is it, Carrie?” chimed another programmer nearby, looking up from his book of scrawled code.

“Lin, c’mere and look at this.”

“Whoa, what?” Lin frowned. “Yeah, that’s… weird. What does that mean? What’s ‘carrhae?’”

The door slid open.

A panting engineer stood with wild eyes. “Something’s gone wrong,” she said.

“What is it?” Dr. Hadford said. The guards moved hands to their weapons.

Rasputin garbled something unintelligible. 

The chamber shook.

Dr. Hadford grabbed the console. “Is he shooting off Warsats?! Rasputin, stop!”

“There’s been a massive gravitational anomaly detected on the edge of the solar system,” the engineer said. She was white as a ghost and sounded terrified. “They just found it, and they don’t… no one… knows that the hell it is. Bray wants Rasputin on it, but--”

Another round of Warsats fired off. 

“Seems like he’s handling it.” Dr. Hadford mashed at the console. “Stop that! Rasputin, what are you doing?! What’s going on? What the hell is Carrhae?”

Carrhae was the beginning.

***

It was barely a day.

Everything erupted into chaos.

The sky was black. The militia on-site were moving civilians inside the Cosmodrome walls, while the scientists hastily screened them for cryo on the Exodus colony ships. Warsats fired frequently. The wind hissed and screamed.

Dr. Hadford staggered through the crowds. “Move!” she shouted. “I’ve got to get to Rasputin! Warmind programmer, coming through!”

Gin got tired of it.

A loud bang had people screaming and ducking.

Gin holstered her pistol. “Dr. Hadford needs to get to Rasputin, now,” she announced. “Everybody move.”

Civilians scrambled.

Dr. Hadford sighed in relief. “Thanks.”

Gin grunted and kept pace. 

It wasn’t a minute later that Dr. Hadford’s phone rang. She answered with a frown. “Hello?”

Her frown turned to the briefest flash of relief, followed by fear.

“Yeah. Yeah, I can. You’re where? Yes. Yes, okay. I can-- yes, stay there. I’ll be there soon.” She hung up and looked to Gin. “My wife is outside. We have to get her in.”

Gin nodded.

They backtracked and finally managed to get to the walls.

Night was falling, if the clocks were correct.

The wind was getting louder. Something seemed to be pressing down on the world, a physical weight in the air. 

“Something is really, really wrong!” Dr. Hadford yelled over the howling wind.

“An invasion?” Gin offered. 

“That’s what they think, but what?”

“Something really bad. All over the system.”

“Worst of it’s here… going for the Traveler?”

“I don’t know.”

They fought through the wall just in time to hear a deep rumble.

Metal screeched. People screamed.

Gin grabbed Dr. Hadford as people panicked and slammed the accelerators. She yanked her backwards from the madness, jaw tight even as Dr. Hadford choked out in wordless horror. 

The shadows stretched, reached--

The ground shook again as the bridge collapsed. 

Gin had to hold Dr. Hadford back from running into the mess of crashed cars. Smoke billowed. It was too much to comprehend--broken glass, twisted metal, screams for help, of pain, the snow stained red, how many people did she just watch die, how many more were dying now--

“Viv!” Dr. Hadford wailed. She wrenched free of Gin and bolted.

Gin darted after her.

Through the burning wreckage they went. Dr. Hadford stumbled, tripped on mangled cars. Gin caught up when a civilian trapped in a crushed car flailed his bloody arm through the broken window and grabbed Dr. Hadford’s ankle.

He wheezed helplessly, blood dribbling from his mouth. His neck was bent at an angle that made Dr. Hadford shudder. 

Gin crouched and looked at him. For a moment, something like pity softened the plates of her face. “Close your eyes and think of the Light,” she whispered to him.

He coughed out spatters of blood. His eyes were already hazy, but he let them close.

Gin unholstered her gun.

Dr. Hadford looked away and flinched at the crack.

“I don’t know how many more people need that,” Gin said, voice flat, empty. “Too many. Whatever this is…”

“Vivian…” 

Gin dragged her upright. “Where?”

Dr. Hadford led her to the edge of the broken bridge. A car had crashed into a rock. The driver was alive, but barely; she’d stumbled out of the car, dazed and bleeding, one arm clearly broken, probably a rib or more, too.

Vivian looked up as they approached and collapsed to her knees. “Carrie,” she croaked. “Oh, God…”

Dr. Hadford fell to her knees in front of her and cupped her face, tears streaming from her eyes. “Vivian, Vivian, you’re alive… you’re here, God…”

Vivian wheezed for breath. She reached her shaking hand up to touch Dr. Hadford’s face. “This is… the end of the world… isn’t it?”

“No, it can’t be, it isn’t,” Dr. Hadford insisted.

Vivian leaned into her. “It is… but we’re together. That’s all I could ask for… our last moments together…”

“Vivian, we have to get you inside, you need a doctor.”

“It hurts, love. The shadows are so dark.”

“Gin, call for help, please.”

Vivian glanced up to the exo and twitched a weak smile. “You… are my wife’s personal guard… thank you. You’re a good woman.”

Gin lowered her head silently.

Dr. Hadford leaned in and kissed her wife, soft and gentle. “Don’t speak like this is goodbye.”

“It isn’t. It’s… see you soon.” The ground rumbled, and Rasputin launched another volley of Warsats into the atmosphere. “The Traveler will make sure we’re together, I know it.”

“I love you.”

Vivian leaned into Dr. Hadford’s arms. “I love you, too, Carrie. Always.”

A car on the other side of the broken road tipped forward and plunged into the valley below. 

There was something nearly silent. The world was muffled for just a moment.

Then Dr. Hadford’s breath hitched. “Viv? Vivian? Oh, God, Vivian, please, wake up--”

Gin crouched beside her. She looked at the body in the doctor’s arms. “Doctor,” she said softly. “I… I’m sorry.”

Dr. Hadford clutched Vivian’s body close, sobs breaking from her chest.

Gin brushed a hand on her back, almost ginger about it. “If it helps… I would think she is right. That in the end, we’re with those we love, in the Light. I… think you will see her again. She won’t see whatever hell has come.”

“Gin… th-thank you… you’re so… quiet, usually, I… d-didn’t think you…”

“Had feelings?” Giovanna almost smiled. “Neither did I. Thank you, Dr. Hadford… for showing me that I’m still… human.”

There was the slightest touch of cold metal to the back of Dr. Hadford’s neck.

***

Giovanna staggered through the snow. Time was lost, meaningless to her now. She’d lost an arm, tied it to her body with a salvaged rope. Sparks flitted from her broken leg. 

Her gun sat empty in the holster at her hip. She’d long since spent nearly everything. She had one bullet left, and a good idea what to use it for. 

The wind was black and screaming. It never relented. The cosmic war between the Traveler and whatever hell had come made time-space unstable. Giovanna felt like she was teetering between reality and someplace else. Some… in between place.

A void.

She felt it now, stronger than ever, pulling at her very atoms, threatening to destabilize the magnetic forces that dictated her existence in the universe. It didn’t… hurt, exactly, but it was… it was… she didn’t know.

Giovanna stumbled and fell. She cursed, but didn’t move to get up.

She waited. Slowly, she rolled over, onto her back, and looked up at the sky. 

She wished she could see anything. A single star. Something besides the awful, seething shadows. 

Did she deserve it? No, probably not. For all she had done, in this life and her first… for anyone and herself… 

A glitched laugh broke free from her vocal modulator. She’d probably outlived Clovis Bray, at least. 

Something felt free in her, somehow. 

Ever since her final job, a sense of something had lifted in her chest. 

She reflected, now. Not on the blood that stained her hands, but what little good she had done. The pain she had stopped, had prevented. 

Maybe in the next life, she could do better. 

Giovanna slowly pulled her pistol from its holster. She thumbed the hammer, heard it click. 

She looked up again, one more time. 

For just a moment, she saw a flash of color. A swirl of light, teal-green and amethyst. 

The Auroras. 

It was the last and first thing that she ever saw.

  
***  
  


For just a moment, she saw a flash of color. A swirl of light, teal-green and amethyst.

Ice cut into her, but it didn’t hurt, not really. She was numb. She stared at the display painted across the night sky, stars dancing through the curtain of light. 

“Hello?” asked a small, soft voice.

She blinked and turned her head. She refocused her eyes on a tiny floating robot.

The robot sighed in relief. “Hi. I’m glad you’re okay. You’re gonna be… really confused, and I’m sorry about that. I’m Saffron, and I’m your Ghost.”

“A… ghost?” She frowned. “Am I dead?”

“Well… yes, and no. You were, but… I brought you back to life.”

She slowly, with effort, pushed herself upright. She looked down at herself. A uniform, simple and lightly padded-- some kind of security? A belt with an empty holster. The pistol wasn’t far; she found it quickly, shoving aside the snow. It was empty. She looked back to Saffron. “Where are we? I… I can’t remember anything. Is that because I’m dead?”

“Yeah,” Saffron said, sympathetic. “We’re in Old Russia, somewhere, I think. Or maybe Eastern Europe. It’s hard to tell.”

She turned the pistol over in her hands, wracking her brain.

Not her brain. 

Her digital synapses-- her neuromap. 

She couldn’t remember, but she had memories, sort of. Corrupted, faded, half-wiped, but there. She was an exo-- a human mind in a mechanical body, a miracle of engineering, designed for… for…

For what?

She slipped the pistol into the holster at her hip and got to her feet. She dusted the snow off herself. “Well… what now, Saffron?”

Saffron spun her shell. “We should find somewhere safe for the night first,” she said. “And then we should start looking for other people. And maybe a better weapon… it’s dangerous.”

“Dangerous how?”

Saffron dimmed her light a little bit. “There’s these creatures… they’re aliens. I don’t think they’re evil, but they’re aggressive. If you die, I can bring you back to life again, but… we should still be careful.”

She nodded. “Okay.” She started to trudge through the snow, picking a direction at random. Another question sprung up. “So… I’m not the only one who has a Ghost? I’m not like, some special chosen one?”

Saffron laughed a little as she floated alongside her. “Well, you’re my chosen one, so that makes you special to me! But no, you’re not the only one. There are lots of Ghosts. The Traveler made us to find our partner and protect the Light. That’s… really all I know, honestly.”

“The Traveler…” She nodded slowly. “I remember it. Kinda.”

“What? You do?”

She wiggled her hand and shrugged. “I’m an exo. So… I’ve got something, not really good memories, but there’s something. Information coded into my brain. I’m guessing that any regular fleshy humans won’t remember much, but any other exos… it’s not really like any personal memories, really. Who I am, or was, or… anything like that, but I know what the Traveler is.” She rested a hand on the pistol at her hip. “I know how to use this, once we find some ammo. I… know that the world ended. That the apocalypse came. That I died in it.”

“It’s okay that you don’t know who you were,” Saffron said, soft. “You can be anyone.”

She smiled at the Ghost. “You sound a little nervous.”

“Some other Risen have… taken that to mean that they can be kings and murderers.”

Her smile fell at the timid confession. “That won’t be me, Saff. Promise. You resurrected me to protect the Traveler, right? This is like a second chance, or… third?” She shook her head. “Maybe I was made an exo for the same reason. I have no idea, but I like the sound of it.”

Saffron buzzed around her. “That’s good! Good! I’m so glad, I was worried! But I could tell that you were a good person, I just knew it when I felt you! Your Light was so bright and warm!”

“I’ll do you proud, Saff. We’ll be a team. Protect people and… make sure we don’t get another apocalypse.”

Saffron chimed cheerfully, then exclaimed, “Oh! Oh, you should give yourself a name!”

She looked up again at the sky. The first thing she’d ever seen… it put a chill down her spine.

“Aurora. That’s my name.”

***

_ She sat so relaxed for a woman so tightly cuffed in that cold steel room. She stared evenly at him, her rich brown eyes unsettlingly empty. Her mouth was quirked in a smirk, or a sneer, just barely. The only sound was the slow ticking of the clock on the wall. _

_ He looked past her finally to the mirror behind her.  _

_ There was a click, and a voice through the speakers. “Ms. Tan. You do still have the right to an attorney. This is pointless. Without one, there’s no way you can--” _

_ “I know,” the woman said. Her voice was light and deep. She kept her eyes on him. “I know what’s gonna happen.” _

_ He sighed and spoke before the other officer outside could. “Then why not cooperate?” he asked. _

_ Her grin widened. “Why not, indeed?” _

_ He gritted his teeth. _

Fast forward.

_ “I have come to give you a proposition.” _

_ She raised an eyebrow. “Yeah? What kind?” _

_ “You have no chance of survival.” _

_ “Yep.” _

_ “I am a representative of someone who would be willing to make your sentencing meaningful. A unique opportunity for someone like you.” _

The holographic symbol.

Reports. Articles. News broadcasts. They spanned years. 

Fast forward.

Reports, now formal, internal. Private notes, observations. Records. Marked with that symbol. So neutral, utterly professional. The signatures matched.

Fast forward. 

A scientist--smiling, soft-eyed, speaking to the camera. An external zoom on the security guard at her side. An exo, stiff and unblinking. 

Fast forward--

_Error_.

No, there’s something, there had to be.

_ File located. Error: file data corrupted. Attempt data restoration? _

Yes.

_ Attempting data restoration… _

Help, little Light. 

Thank you.

_ Partial data restoration successful.  _

_ Record of target termination remotely confirmed. GIO-2 signal corrupted shortly after. Contact lost; GIO-2 assumed deceased. This information was automatically received and processed in the absence of permitted Clovis Bray associates to manually process this information. Would you like manually process-- _

No. No. 

No.

“Aurora?”

When had she fallen to her knees? She didn’t know. She didn’t care. 

“Can… can we go home?”

Yes. 

Numb footsteps. Outside-- red sand. Red sky. Dusty rusty red. 

She looked at her hands and saw red. Blinked. No, it was her mind. 

Her soul was covered in red. Her life was soaked in blood. 

Her voice crackled with static. 

“Don’t tell anyone. I don’t want anyone to know.”

“I won’t, Guardian--”

“I don’t want people to know I’m a monster.”

“Aurora, no, I-- you’re not-- that isn’t you! I didn’t resurrect that, I found you.”

“Saffron--”

A blue eye, determined and soft. Warm, soothing, loving. “You are my Guardian. You’re a hero. I’m proud of you. None of that matters to me. That isn’t who you are. You’re Aurora, and I love you.”

***

Four blue eyes, determined and soft. Warm, soothing, loving. “My Guardian. My hero. I am proud, of you and what you have done, for me, for my House, my people. Maybe… does not mean much, from me, but…”

Gentle claws grasping her hands, an amethyst twinkling in a furry cloak’s mantle. Mikris purred as she spoke, holding her eyes.

“Thank you, for trusting me to tell me. But that is not you. But is still… inspiring. Hopeful. You learn of pain caused by your past, and you do better now. You grow and fight to protect people. You, Kell-slayer, god-killer, can do that… so can Eliksni. I will not tell. I promise. But I know.”

Mikris tapped her chestpiece. She reached out and set another hand on Aurora’s. A spark of solar warmth within the blanket of void.

“You are my Aurora. I love you.”

Aurora pulled her in close, burrowed her face into her beloved's rumbling chest, felt four arms wrap around her to hold her there. 

Mikris was honest in everything. Mikris spoke her heart. Mikris was Aurora's hero, inspiration, hope, Light. Mikris was her aurora borealis.

**Author's Note:**

> yee haw lesbians  
> come stop by tumblr @lesbianeliksni


End file.
